1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a display device for a vehicle to indicate various status data values regarding the conditions of an engine therefore, and in particular to a display device for a watercraft to indicate various status data values regarding the conditions of an outboard motor, such as engine speed, trim angle, cooling water temperature, battery voltage, and oil level.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional display devices for a watercraft, which indicate various status data values of outboard motor conditions, are known. Such devices provide special display regions for indicating watercraft speed or engine speed, as well as trim angle of the outboard motor. Oil level meters are generally provided independently to indicate the oil level, such as by the lighting position among the three lamps. One such display device is described in Japanese Patent Document JP-B-Hei 6-027978.
However, such devices do not clearly specify how to indicate other status data values regarding the outboard motor conditions, including, for instance: cooling water temperature, cooling water pressure, battery voltage, and oil pressure.
Additionally, a problem with such conventional display devices is that dedicated meters must be provided for every type of status data to be displayed. Therefore, as the number of status data to be displayed is increased, a larger installation space is necessary to accommodate all the display devices for a watercraft. In addition, as these meters are of a built-in type, all of them would come into an operator's view at any time, requiring a substantial work load and mental strain on the operator's part for visually recognizing the information on the meters.